In the printing industry, it is a common practice to provide a “proof print” of a document to be mass-produced to a customer for approval before printing. This is done so that a customer may approve the colors, textures, and other features or elements of the document before it is mass-produced on a printing press. As such, a proof print often becomes a “contract proof” which is used as a benchmark by which the later mass produced prints are approved. Since proof prints are usually produced in limited quantities, they can be quite expensive.
Many print shops are making their printing services available on-line. Specifically, a user might be able to provide content and other specifics about a document to be printed on-line over the Internet. In some situations, a user might be able to view the document to be printed on a computer screen. It would be advantageous if a user could approve a document for printing based upon its appearance on a computer screen. In such a case, a user could provide remote approval for the mass printing of a document where the digital version of the document is employed as a print proof. Such a practice would avoid the costs of producing print proofs using printing presses.
Unfortunately, print proofing using digital images of documents is not entirely feasible. This is because there is usually a disparity between the appearance of a document on a computer screen and the physical appearance of the same document as printed on a printing press. As a result, a customer may like the appearance of a document as rendered on a computer screen, but may dislike the physical appearance of the document after printing.